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When I told my next door neighbor in May of 2008 that I was going to sell the house along with all of my personal possessions and move to Chiclayo Peru with my Peruvian wife, his response was..” That’s a path not many men walk.” I had that impression as well, but have since learned that many men and women have walked and continue to walk that path. There is a large expatriate community in Lima and a significant number of gringos scattered about the remainder of the country from the larger coastal cities to the smallest jungle villages. Many of them have personal blogs in which they offer travel advice, news, and a wealth of other information along with their individual experiences. The purpose of this blog is not so far reaching. My intent is simply to record my experiences and observations for family, friends and anyone else who may be interested, but mostly for myself. Peru is to me a musical, magical land and I’ve found that writing about it helps me to preserve the beauty I experience as I explore this enchanting country. Anyway, thanks for visiting my site. Feel free to come back again, and leave a comment if you’d care to or send an email to me at kaetan1@gmail.com.

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Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Turn left…turn left…turn left…

Anyone familiar with a car GPS might have guessed what the
title of this post is referring to. There is a mototaxi; not a car but a
mototaxi that regularly patrols our neighborhood either transporting customers
or looking for them, that has a GPS. Frequently during the day we hear that
female voice saying in English, turn left…turn left. That’s all she says. She
never says anything else, like ‘recalculating’, or ‘hey dummy you missed the
turn.’ Just…turn left. Obviously there’s something wrong with that GPS, and has
been for at least six months.

So why doesn’t the moto driver turn it off or remove it?
Maybe it’s a status thing; he thinks potential customers will be impressed that
he has a GPS…and in English yet! Maybe he doesn’t know how to turn it off or
remove it. Maybe he likes the sound or her voice. What if it’s a political
message? What if the driver is encouraging people who may have conservative
political leanings to adopt a liberal left point of view? Especially on the heels
of Trump’s election. Many Peruvians don’t like Trump, including Peru’s president.
They say he is ‘malo’ (bad or evil). Venezuela’s economy is a mess. Very
recently Peru approved 6,000 special visas for Venezuelans to come to Peru to
work, study and receive health care. When announcing the program Peru’s
president said, “Now is the time to build bridges, not walls.” It’s pretty clear who that message was directed
at.

Speaking of the liberal left, there has been a flood (no
pun intended) of protests on Chiclayo’s streets and in parks lately. Some of
them are in support of the LGBT movement. I admit I had to look up the meaning.
Whenever I see LGBT in print my immediate thought is of a bacon, lettuce and
tomato sandwich. Other protests call for the removal of, “…garbage on
television!” I once asked a protester what qualified him to determine what is garbage
television. He said he didn’t need qualifications, that it was obvious that
anything that didn’t “feed or stimulate the intellect was garbage television.” I
asked him if he watched The Simpsons. He said he did, and catching my meaning
quickly added, “…but that is not garbage!”

Most of the protesters are very young and very exuberant.
It is my impression that they are more focused on enjoying the excitement of
the activity then they are on being invested in their cause.

Many years ago I interviewed a newspaper editor in his
office (oddly, I don’t remember why I was interviewing him). I asked him what he
looked for in hiring a reporter. He said that for a broadcast reporter he wanted
a physical appearance and voice that wasn’t distracting. For both written and
broadcast, good communication skills were critical. Then he added something
that at the time I thought was odd and has stayed in my memory through the
years. He said he favored hiring slightly older applicants who “had all of
their causes behind them.” He didn’t want reporters to take a position or try
to influence, but to report objectively and dispassionately. He said his job
was to present the facts and let the readers/viewers draw their own
conclusions.

I once had causes. The further in time I am removed from those
days of naive idealism the more I forget that I too once thought it was
possible to change the path of humanity to a direction that I knew was the right direction! Like those LGBT and ‘garbage’ protesters, I was
positive I knew the truth! I wonder
if there will come a time when the moto driver’s GPS will say, ‘turn right…turn
right…

##########

On an apolitical note,
school supplies are showing up in Chiclayo’s stores. Very soon the phone calls
will start coming from pronoei directors asking Promesa Peru to help them. We’re
looking forward to it. We’ve had two months off and are ready to saddle up.